Sympathetic string

Sympathetic string (Ger.: Resonanzsaite), a string that is not bowed or plucked but that vibrates in sympathy with others that are. Such strings reached England from the Near East in the 16th c. and spread from there to the Continent. Francis Bacon (d. 1626) wrote of a viola da gamba with sympathetic strings, and Praetorius relates that the English used them on bowed instrs. In 1652 Playford wrote that the lyra viol with its sympathetic strings had been “set aside.” The only European instr. to…